When
it comes to making decisions about their children, parents have few
rights, as demonstrated by the Abraham Cherrix case and others. The
concept of the State control of children came from antiquity when
Plato first suggested the mechanism for a state-provided public education.
He advocated removing children from their parents� care and raising
them as wards of the State. It is interesting that in 1918, at the
congress of the Communist Party education workers in Russia it was
asserted, "We must remove the children from the crude influence of
their families.�[1]

The
enforcement mechanism for �educational neglect�[2]
�such as truancy and in some cases, homeschooling[3]
--belongs to teachers and social workers. In medical decisions, physicians
are charged with forcing medical �standard of care� treatments on
children of unwilling parents. Doctors not only have the right to
step in, they are mandated by state law to report medical abuse and
neglect to Children�s Services. The decision is usually made when
a physician feels the action�or inaction�of a parent places the child
in danger of death or disability. A common occurrence is when a parent,
who is a Jehovah�s Witness, refuses a blood transfusion for their
child on religious grounds.

Wide
support and extensive court precedence exists backing a doctor�s decision
to call Children�s Services. The rationale for this authority is clearly
described in a 1996 paper that states, "Whether (the guardians) are
sincere, sane, and in every other capacity model parents, their
insistence upon treatment that is scientifically inferior to conventionally
accepted treatment is abusive, even if their intent is not."[4]

Because
the State agrees with the premise that the �doctor knows best,� parents
are deemed �unfit� when they refuse a suggested conventional medical
treatment. Social workers have the power to seize the child once notified
by a physician that they have an obstreperous patient on their hands.
Police agencies have been known to enforce the decision at gunpoint.

The
current system was set up to protect obviously abused and neglected
children. It would provide adequate protection if medical professionals
were amenable to common sense. In the case of Abraham Cherrix, the
parents respected and liked their conventional oncologist enough to
inform her of their decision, wanting to include her in Abraham�s
ongoing care. The outcome attests to the current mess our medical
system is in. Unfortunately, common sense isn�t very common these
days and disagreeing with your doctor can lead to removal of your
child from your home.

Modern
medicine operates under the pretense that it is �science based.� It
claims that its therapies have been developed through the research
Gold Standard: the double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized, cross-over
study. However, the majority of medical therapies have never been
subjected to this type of analysis. Evidence-based medicine has only
been underway since 1990. The list of standard medical therapies that
have proven to be worthless after they were scrutinized is long. Tens
of thousands of people have suffered through the use of �usual and
customary� therapies before they were proven to be useless.[5]
The implication that the alternative practices sought by the Cherrix
family are �unproven and dangerous� may very well be said about the
conventional treatments being forced on him by his oncologists.

What
you can do

Currently
the American Association of Health Freedom (AAHF) is reaching out
to Congress to urgently have a medical hearing over this case. It
has been done before, with the Terri Schiavo case, and it can be done
again. AAHF is the politically active voice at the federal level,
fighting to change laws that restrict a patient�s choice and a practitioner�s
ability to provide alternative medical treatments. As the VP of the
Board of Directors for AAHF, I strongly encourage parents and doctors
alike to support their work. Consumers can join the lobbying efforts
for as little as $20 per year; or larger, tax-deductible donations
can be made to the Health Freedom Foundation. Please contact AAHF
at 800-230-2762 and www.healthfreedom.net
for more information on how to get involved. For part 1 click nelow.

Dr. Sherri Tenpenny
is respected as one of the country's most knowledgeable and outspoken
physicians regarding the impact of vaccines on health. Through her education
company, New Medical Awareness, LLC, she spreads her vision of retaining
freedom of choice in healthcare, including the freedom to refuse vaccination.
A portion of this article is an excerpt from her new book, FOWL!
Bird Flu: It's Not What You Think, released in April, 2006. For daily
updates on the bird flu, including the real reasons behind the hype, and
a bi-weekly e-Newsletter with Dr. Tenpenny's commentary go to www.BirdFluHype.com

The
concept of the State control of children came from antiquity when Plato
first suggested the mechanism for a state-provided public education. He
advocated removing children from their parents� care and raising them
as wards of the State.